Eco-Regions

Workshop Argentina-South Africa “Information and Communication Technologies” Buenos Aires, September 16th to 17th, 2009

Argentine ICT for Agriculture

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From sub-tropical to cold weather From high mountains to sea-coast From wetlands to deserts Many different environments and production systems From intensive peri-urban horticulture to isolated extensive sheep production From large ranches to smallholding From highly technified to ancestral methods Wide diversity of productive scenarios

In pictures

NARS (INTA) • • • • • • •

National R&D System National coverage 15 Research Institutes 47 Experimental Stations 300 Extension Agencies 7.000 people 400 Projects

INTA is a great ICT demandant www.inta.gov.ar

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Agri-Business Agri-Chains • Primary, manufacture, inputs, machinery, logistics, commerce, consulting, etc. Primary • Grains, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits and forestry • Livestock, poultry, pork, diary, wool and mohair, beekeeping Manufacture • Food processing • Textiles • Bio-fuels and renewable energy Non-traditional • Agro-tourism (eco, hunting, adventure, lifestyle, etc) • Organic and boutique farming • Biomaterials

Agri-business issues • • • • • • • • •

Social Economics and financial Market and trends Technological (seeding, irrigation, crop protection, harvesting, storing, transportation and processing) Climate (present and long term) Soil use, health and sustainability Regulations (local and global) Plagues, diseases and weeds Water availability, use and contamination

… the rapid and dramatic changes currently taking place in the way food is produced, sold and consumed. Green Jobs. UNEP. 2008.

Agri-Knowledge (local and global) Information Systems for registering, knowing and predicting: • Weather conditions and climate • Soil conditions and dynamics • Crop dynamics • Water dynamics (specially in drought scenarios) • Social dynamics (working force, rural living, migration, etc.) • Vegetal, animal and human diseases • Biodiversity

Agri-solutions (tools and processes) Modeling Simulation Sensoring Monitoring Managing Decision making Communication Education and training

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Research Lines and Products: Geomatic

•Geographic Information Systems •Production maps •Decision making support systems •Environmental maps

Research Lines and Products: Precision Agriculture

Research Lines and Products: Remote Sensing

Chaiten Vulcan erupting in 2008

Research Lines and Products: Food Traceability

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Research Lines and Products: Agrometeorology

Research Lines and Products: Agrometheorology Radars

Inputs and outputs

Research Lines and Products: Bioinformatics

Genomics Proteomics Metabolomics Transcriptomic Disease resistence Drought resistence Functional Foods

Research Lines and Products: Biomodelling, simulation and prediction. Research and education Bioprocesses Micro-organisms Crops Weeds and plagues Water Ecosystems

Human Resources Networking

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Research Lines and Products: AgroEcoManagement

Research Lines and Products: Automatation

Research Lines and Products: Decision Support Sysetem

Research Lines and Products: Epidemiology

Micro Level Macro Level Free-distribution

FitoPatoAtlas

EpiDiagno

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Research lines and products: Agri-Management • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Agriculture Horticulture Livestock Feedlot Diary Fruit Machinery Meat processing plant Grain storage and monitoring Beekeeping Inputs Government Etc.

Research Lines and Products: e-Learning

Challenges • • • • • •

Research Lines and Products: Mobile solutions

Upgrading Standarization Certification Migrating Web services Open source

Research Lines and Products: Electronics, Telecommunication and Networks

UAV Weed detector Herbicide variable aplication

Agri-metheorological Automatic Station

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Research Lines and Products: Large InfoSystems

Research Lines and Products: Web 2.0 and KM A wheat KM platform

R+D+I in Agri-ICT

Agro-ICT Meta-reflection

• 2 Research Communities: Agri + ICT • Convergence (info, bio, electronics, telecomm) and Technology Integration • Need for Interdiscipline • Agromatic Specialization (for both agri and ICT students)

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Emerging area Lack of Tradition Need for integration Need for philosophical debate Need for political definitions Specialization and Generalization Last but not least: cyberinfraestructure (rural connectivity, Internet 2, datacenters, HPC, grid, etc.)

CAI 2010

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Have we a R&D common future? • • • • • • • • •

Keep on playing

We are both in the South Cone We both need to promote agriculture and food supply We both need to battle poverty We both have agriculture and ICT workers, entrepeneurs, scientists and technicians We shoud not re-discover powder We should re-use ours discovers and experiences as we re-use code for programming We can save time and take advantage of opportunities We can bring together the farm and the tech We have done some work, we have lot more to do… So the answer is…

Thanks !!

South Africa-Argentine Cooperation in ICT for Agriculture

Dr. Pablo Mercuri [email protected] Eng. Marcelo Bosch [email protected] Dr. Javier Bellati [email protected] National Institute for Agriculture Technology

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